It is the fourth-oldest baseball facility in use today. Only Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and Yankee Stadium have been in use longer. But after today's Phillies-Nationals game, RFK Stadium, on the eastern edge of Washington, D.C., will be officially retired as a baseball venue.

Derided as one of those cookie-cutter, multi-purpose stadiums that were so prominent in the 1960s, RFK Stadium opened as D.C. Stadium on Oct. 1, 1961, when it hosted its first game, an NFL contest between the Redskins and Giants. The Senators (the expansion Senators, not the original Senators that moved to Minnesota and became the Twins in 1961) played their first game there the following season.

One has to dig deep to find anything resembling a "highlight" or "memorable moment" at RFK as a baseball park. The Senators finished in last place four times during their 11-year stay in Washington (1961-71), lost 100 games for four straight years (1961-64) and only once (1969) finished above .500.

Frank Howard, nicknamed "The Capital Punisher," did deliver a few ooh-and-ah moments with his Ruthian blasts that landed in the upper deck in center field. He's the only member of the expansion Senators, hitter or pitcher, to lead the American League in a major category. Howard led the AL in homers in 1968 and '70 (44 both times) and finished second in 1969 with a career-best 48.

Nonetheless, in order to honor RFK's role as a major-league stadium, we are pleased to produce several semi-significant baseball moments:

-- D.C. Stadium was renamed RFK Stadium in January 1969 following the assassination of U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedyin June 1968.

-- The first major-league game played there was April 9, 1962 (final score: Senators 4, Tigers 1).

-- First home run: Senators shortstop Bob Johnsonon April 9, 1962. (Johnson ended his career in 1970 as a member of the A's).

-- Howard, also nicknamed "Hondo," hit a record 116 home runs at RFK. Second-most was Don Lock with 51. Among the top 10 players to have hit the most home runs at RFK, the only player to have played for the Nationals was Alfonso Soriano. Soriano has 24 homers at RFK, good for eighth on the list.

-- Phil Ortega, a Senators pitcher from 1965-68, tops the list of home run victims at RFK with 53. The only active pitcher in the top 10 is Livan Hernandezwho yielded 27, which is tied for ninth.

-- Despite being a home for major-league baseball for only 13 years, it hosted two All-Star Games: 1962 (second game) and 1969. In 1969, the Giants' Hall of Fame first baseman Willie McCoveyhad perhaps his finest moment in the national spotlight, hitting a pair of home runs in the NL's 9-3 victory.

-- No Hall of Famer ever played for a team that called its home RFK Stadium, but three HOFers managed there for the home team: Gil Hodges(1963-67 Senators), Ted Williams(1969-71 Senators) and Frank Robinson(2005-06 Nationals).

3 by 500: With his three-homer game Monday, Toronto's Frank Thomasjoined Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, Reggie Jacksonand Mike Schmidtas the only members of the 500-home run club to hit at least three in a game while they were members of the club. Thomas' homers were career Nos. 510, 511 and 512. Bonds did it three times, the first on May 19, 2001, when he hit Nos. 512, 513 and 514. Ruth did it twice, including his last three homers Nos. 712, 713 and 714 on May 25, 1935.

Thomas, at 39 years and 4 months, also became the fourth-oldest player to hit three in game. The only geezers to surpass him in this category are: Stan Musial(41 years, 81/2 months) on July 8, 1962; Jackson (40 years, 4 months) on Sept. 18, 1986; and Dave Winfield(39 years, 61/2 months) on April 13, 1991.

Parity like it's 2000: With a week to go in the baseball season, baseball can say it's been a pretty darn mediocre season. Everybody's flawed. Nobody totally stinks. Parity rules. All 30 major-league teams have a winning percentage above .400 and below .600. If this trend continues until the end of the regular season, it will be just the second time in big-league history that baseball can say that. The only other season was in 2000, when the Giants were the best team at .599 (95-67) and the worst teams were the Cubs and Phillies at .401 (65-97).

Thome's 500th:Jim Thome hit his 500th home run with style, becoming the first player ever to hit a walk-off homer for such a milestone. His 500th homer came in his 6,809th career at-bats. Only three other players reached 500 quicker: Mark McGwire(5,487), Ruth (5,800) and Harmon Killebrew(6,671).

Owings, Owings ... gone: If Arizona reaches the World Series, perhaps it will consider using pitcher Micah Owingsas its designated hitter. In his two-hit shutout over the Giants on Tuesday, the right-hander collected his ninth extra-base hit of the season, a double. In 55 at-bats, he has 4 doubles, 1 triple, 4 homers and a .618 slugging percentage, which would be the fifth-best in the majors if he had enough at-bats to qualify. No pitcher (with at least 50 at-bats) in the past 50 seasons has a better slugging percentage than Owings. In the game's history, he's the fourth-best slugger/pitcher. The top three: Don Newcombe (.632) for the 1955 Dodgers; Carl Scheib(.623) for the 1951 Athletics; and Wes Ferrell(.621) for the 1931 Indians.

Trivia answer: Mario Soto won 17 in 1983 and then 18 in 1984.

TRIVIA QUESTION

After winning 16 games last season, Reds pitcher Aaron Harang is going for his 17th win today against the Giants. Who is the previous Reds pitcher to win as many as 16 games in consecutive seasons?

(Answer at bottom of By the Numbers)

Like candy from a baby

Dave Roberts has been successful on 31 of 36 stolen-base tries this season, an 86.1 percent success rate. It is the seventh-best single-season percentage in Giants history among players with at least 20 swipes: